The Fitzes released their redistricting plan this afternoon, carefully designed for maximum "fuck you" effect. Among other bullshit, it wreaks havoc in Dane County, creating new Senate districts designed to put Jon Erpenbach out of a job, and forcing whoever wins the 48th special into either Mark Pocan's or Kelda Helen Roys' districts.

Oh, and it pre-empts local communities' ability to create their own ward maps.

It's morbidly entertaining to think of the R's up late at night, scribbling on the map with Sharpees, cackling their heads off. "Hey, let's cut Madison up like this! Let's put Pocan in the middle of Lake Monona! Put Risser over here in Cross Plains...Heheh..."

Fitzgerald himself said of course someone will take it to court and the courts will end up drawing the thing. Which court?

It's morbidly entertaining to think of the R's up late at night, scribbling on the map with Sharpees, cackling their heads off. "Hey, let's cut Madison up like this! Let's put Pocan in the middle of Lake Monona! Put Risser over here in Cross Plains...Heheh..."

It pretty much happens any time there is a single party in control - packing and cracking.

Here, a guy analyzes the whole Fitzgerald map in detail and comes to the conclusion the Senate could go Democratic even with the redistricting, but it'd be a lot harder in the House. He uses the Obama election as a benchmark and goes district by district.

If you didn't see it Friday, the judges hearing the federal lawsuit against the new districts not only refused to toss it out of court, but cited a precedent that could well overturn the new districts:

A three-judge panel ruled Friday a lawsuit can continue over how Republican lawmakers drew new legislative maps and signaled those suing have a fair shot at winning....

Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen asked the panel to throw out the case, arguing the state has the ability to postpone when voters have a chance to go to the polls when it draws new legislative maps.

But on Friday, the panel dismissed that argument, noting a federal court found Wisconsin improperly drew maps in 1983 because 173,976 voters had their ability to vote unnecessarily postponed.

And I like how the ruling chastises the GOP brain trust for presuming they could keep people from challenging this in federal court:

The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution makes the laws of the United States superior to the laws of the individual states. As a result, Wisconsin simply cannot strip litigants of their ability to seek redress under federal statutes, in federal courts, for violations of the federal Constitution. To do so would hold the laws of the state as superior to the laws of the United States.

Henry Vilas wrote:Update on my last post. Dale Schultz said he won't vote for the change, meaning it won't pass in the Senate (assuming all Democratic senators also vote against it). That should stop that nonsense.

Let's do something nice for Dale Schultz. Next time fourteen senators are up on the podium and the crowd is chanting "thank you!" and the senators are chanting back, we can invite him up there to get thanked too.

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, argued that Lazich's proposals were not rushed. He said her bill to change the date new districts go into effect was simply an idea for cleaning up the "mess" and "massive confusion" caused by Wisconsin Democrats' "never-ending election cycle."

And he accused Democrats of pushing recalls and shifting the debate away from jobs.

"The Democrats think they deserve more power than the people of Wisconsin gave them in the elections, and I get that," Fitzgerald said. "But we should all agree that getting people back to work is more important than the next round of recalls."